4 Exercises to Improve Memory

Imagine remembering every little detail that you experience with your senses. You would eventually go mental with information overload. That is why the brain filters out information it does not regard as relevant. The downside to this is that at the same time it dismisses information that we might need or want to access at a future point in time. However, there is a solution to this as there are exercises we can do that help improve our memory.

Memory Palace
This technique is the one used by the eight time memory world record holder Dominic O’Brien to remember the sequence of 2808 playing cards. The concept is pretty simple. You create a route through a location you are very familiar with such as your home or your way to work. You then break this route down into little steps, each step being an object. You must have this route very clear and memorable in your mind as without this factor, the memory palace is useless. You then take the list of whatever you want to remember and associate each item with the next object along the memory palace path.

Book summary
When you read a book, you will only remember the most relevant aspects or those most interesting to you. However, if you take the time to summarize what you have read after each chapter or reading session, your mind will draw relations between the different subjects in it, forcing you to recall them all (or at least more that you would have otherwise). A great way to summarize themes, characters, relations, themes, etc is mind mapping as this really breaks it all down wonderfully.

Childhood memories
We have many of your memories stored in little fragments in our brain.

However, not all of these fragments are equally readily available when we need them. For this reason it is good to train ourselves to dig into our memories from time to time as try to assemble as many bits of information as possible to get the most complete picture vividly in our minds. This will help train the brain to find relevant stored information and bring it forward to be used. Over time we will become rather good at providing very thorough memories when we need them spontaneously.

Children’s Homework
It is very likely that what you did at school is still being taught to children now. However good or bad you were at the subject at the time, it is still a great way of forcing the brain to bring back the ability to solve those problems.

Memory Exercises